Developing best practices. A proposal for a field-based and valitaded approach to HIA training

In 2008 a working party on HIA was established inside the Italian Agenda 21. The demand for common methodological guidelines for HIA, coming from an increasing number of institutional bodies, triggered a project for developing a common basic knowledge and procedural pathway to be extended nationwide. The central role of local authorities in developing local strategies for sustainable development and health has been recognized inside Ag21 Italy. The overall project aims to create common ground for HIA, develop methods and disseminate knowledge, create expertise to address health impacts inside environmental and strategic impact evaluations (EIA, SEA), and share common practice. Three main actions were identified: 1. Establish an archive of knowledge, data and available documents from national HIA experiences; 2. Pilot a national training course on HIA procedure to harmonize curricula and competencies of HIA practitioners; 3. Propose a "best practice tool" aimed at increasing the value of training performed at the local level. Field-based training pilot program to develop an HIA approach for local use As a first step following development of the actions outlined above, a national meeting was held involving the principal stakeholders promoting HIA culture. Next, HIA principles and the general objectives of the procedure will be tested and validated using a practical field-based approach. The goal of this multicenter initiative, involving different regions in Italy, is to shape the principles and methods for handling an HIA process. The initiative will explicitly address different institutional and professional competencies to take into account the interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral characteristics fundamental to HIA Case studies addressing health from a socioeconomic perspective will be organized with local institutions, according to their main issues of concern. This practical approach to HIA capacity building will be evaluated in terms of ability to independently carry out an HIA approach at the local level